


Temple Guardians

by Sannah



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Animal Transformation, Dimension Travel, Jedi Culture, Jedi Temple, Protective clones, Shapeshifting, Tags Contain Spoilers, Tags May Change, The Last Guardian references, animal forms, clone culture, other dimensions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-17
Updated: 2019-04-04
Packaged: 2019-10-11 10:43:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17445392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sannah/pseuds/Sannah
Summary: The Jedi aren’t what they say they are. They don’t even have a humanoid shape, not truly, and their Temple is not for what it seems. And when the clones were commissioned, it wasn’t for war, but for the protection of the Temple and its inhabitants.





	1. Chapter One

   With a grin, Wolffe jokingly shoves Rex out of the way of the door, laughing when the other man shoots a fake look of betrayal his way. Trailing after them, Cody, Ponds, and Gree roll their eyes at the pair as they head deeper into the Temple.

   Ignoring the looks from some of the Jedi nearby, Wolffe scans the area around them in an attempt to find someone who doesn’t look like they’ll bite the clone’s head off. Spotting a Cerean that seems to fit the description, he quickly makes his way to the being.

   “Excuse me, but do you know where our Jedi might be?” He asks the second he gained the Cerean’s attention.

   “Who might your... Jedi be?” The amused look on the being’s face had Wolffe blushing darkly. _I shouldn’t have phrased the question like that._

   “Let’s see who’s in my group?” Wolffe quickly shoots a look at the group of clones behind him. “They would be… Plo, Obi, Mace, Luminara, Yoda, and Anakin. Maybe Ahsoka if all of her schoolwork happens to be done. We have plans of hanging out, but a meeting place wasn’t stated except for it being in the Temple.”

   Frowning, the Cerean closes her eyes. She hums as the group quietly watches her, seeing a faint glow surrounding the being. _She’s probably using the Force to find them._

   “The group are in the lower levels. Even with how brightly Anakin and Yoda shine, I still can’t get a good location on them with how far under the Temple they are.”

   “We’ll find them somehow. Thank you.” He gives the Jedi a passable attempt of a bow, a smile on his face.

   Wolffe quickly heads back to the group, telling them about where their Jedi are. With nods of agreement, the group of clones quickly head towards the lifts. They have their Jedi to find, and some kind of catacombs to search.

$~_~$

   “It’s like a karking labyrinth down here.” Someone mutters in the hall behind him, Cody if he guesses correctly. Snorting, Wolffe nods in agreement.

“How big do you think it is?” Ponds asks from next to him as their footsteps continue to echo around the hallway despite them having stopped. “Where are our Jedi?”

   “Let’s go this way.” Gree states after a few minutes of silence, pointing down another hallway. “I have a weird feeling that we should go this way.”

   A few weird looks later, Ponds speaks up again. “Why should we listen to this… _feeling…_ of yours?”

   “Luminara and Yoda seem to trust it for some reason.” He shrugs, a scowl on his face as he heads to the hallway. “Is that enough for you?”

   Mumbling and groans soon follow as the group heads after Gree, several rolling their eyes. They look around the hallway as they walk, the resident culture expert running a hand over the markings carved into them.

   “I have never seen anything like this.” Gree mutters, a frown on his face. “Just how old are these markings?”

   “Maybe you should ask Yoda once we find him.” Wolffe mutters from behind him, having moved closer to get a better look himself. “He’ll be the most likely to know.”

   Nodding in agreement, Gree takes the lead as the hallway curves away from view in front of them. Rounding the corner, the hallway enters into a room that looks like it’s the same size as the Temple’s main dining hall, it’s ceiling curling high above them.

   The walls are a pale beige, more of the markings taking up some of the space on them. The markings start from the floor and stop halfway up the walls, seven lines in total that are parallel to each other as they partially extend outwards. In the space above them, there are nine much larger markings evenly spaced from each other, three circles of smaller ones circling around them. A line of black paint separates each group of markings, meeting at the center of the dome above them. At each ‘corner’ of the room, including the clones’, there are four hallways leading away.

   The floor is bare of any markings, made up of a white colored stone. Some of the stones are a stark black against the white, placed amongst the others to form a triquetra that’s circle the center of the room. The center part of the triquetra is three meters higher than the rest of the floor, some kind of [ golden gemstone](https://obsessedoverstones.blogspot.com/2015/11/golden-topaz-gemstone-manifestor-of.html?m=1) placed upon its side.

   With their entrance, the gemstone had started to glow a pale yet bright grey. The group tenses when they see it, watching the gem raptly with wary eyes. A few seconds pass as they wait to see what it does, and the gemstone flashes as the air seems to rush out of the room.

   Covering their eyes at the brightness, the group of clones miss the forming of a shimmering window appearing in the air. Carefully opening their eyes, they land eyes on the window and had varying reactions to it.

   “Do you think it’s dangerous?” Cody asks, darkly eyeing it.

   “If it was,” Rex quickly snarks back, “it wouldn’t be unguarded like this. It’d have better protection than... nothing.”

   “We should check it out.” With all eyes now zeroed in on him, Ponds glowers at the group. “Just to make sure it’s safe. I don’t want anything bad to happen to my Jedi as he’s wandering around down here.”

   Groaning, Wolffe agrees with the man, hearing several others do the same. If Plo was injured while he was exploring _his own temple,_ he would feel like he has failed the Kel Dor.

   Stepping forward, he reaches a hand out to the window. It reaches what feels like rough glass, grating against the skin. The clone presses against it with a frown, and his hand passes through the glass. With a yelp, Wolffe falls forward as he gets sucked into the window. The group all grab onto him, pulling back in an attempt to stop the motion. Instead of doing what they expected, the clones follow their vod through the window.

   As the last clone is sucked into the window, six Jedi ran into the room. Seeing the window floating there, Plo curses as he rushes forward. Anakin gives the Kel Dor a wide eyed look before he curses himself, realizing what must have happened. Following behind them, Yoda, Luminara, and Obi-Wan share a long look.

   “We should go after them.” Obi Wan states, laying a calming hand on his old padawan.

   “Best, it would be.” Yoda immediately agrees, hobbling to the window. “Some explaining, we would have to do.”

   “We best get going, than.”

   Luminara lays a hand on the glass after her statement, letting the window suck her in. The other five soon follow not long behind her, the window elongating to let the short Jedi reach it.


	2. Chapter Two

### Previously

   Five clone troopers (Wolffe, Ponds, Rex, Gree, and Cody) end up in the labyrinth under the Temple in search of their Jedi. As they search, they come across a strange room with even stranger markings carved into the walls. At the center of the room is a gemstone that had activated upon their entrance, and the clones decided to investigate the window that had opened. Once touched, the window pulls the group within when their Jedi rush into the room. Their Jedi ultimately choose to go after them to explain the things that the clones have found.

### Now

   Wolffe pushes at whoever is on top of him, the flash of green he sees indicating who it is as he moves. Next to him, another _vod_ groans as he sits up from where he lays, muttering several curses under his breath.

   “Why did we agree to Ponds’ plan?” Gree asks, helping the _vod_ he landed on sit up. “We should’ve waited there for our _Jetiise_ to find us.”

   “For once,” Rex mutters, “I agree with him. Despite some of the habits I have from my _Jetiise_ , waiting was clearly the most logical choice that we should’ve went with.”

   The others nod in agreement to Rex’s comment, all having the same thought on their minds. _If_ he _would’ve waited, than we should’ve kriffing waited._ Standing, Wolffe stares at place they landed in, eyes widening in shock.

   It was, by far, one of the largest fields he’d seen. The grass is a deep green, seeming to span close to or over 1,500 miles. Where the field ends, the largest trees he’s ever seen start, towering miles over them, climbing their way up the sloping wall of dirt and rock that surrounds the field.

   There are depressions in the field, scattered in a way that seems familiar to Wolffe. In almost all of them are mounds of what looks like large animals, their sides moving up and down in time to their breaths. Some stand up from where they lay, all different from one another as they playfully swat at each other. Settled in the one almost directly next to them, a pair of antlers arches out of the oversized auburn wolf’s head, it’s eyes closed in what is probably sleep with a wing carefully folded over its head. Wolffe shudders as he takes in the size of the creature, shocked to his core that something could grow to that size. It’s probably over seven meters tall!!

   Several seconds pass as the group stares at the creature, Gree gasping when he sees it. They stare in silence, doing their best to not move when someone behind them coughs, the clones whip their heads around to glower at the being who did it. Finding their Jedi standing there was definitely another shock.

$~_~$

   Obi Wan eyes the group in front of him, watching them turn around at the sound of his cough. Honestly, he and the others weren’t expecting the clones to find the gemstone. Nor were they expecting the group to somehow activate it and actually _enter_ the portal that had appeared. They had rushed to the gemstone’s room as soon as they sensed its activation.

   Now, the clones sheepishly stand in front of them, shooting glances at the sleeping form next to them. Luminara hums in thought as she watches them, eyes jumping between each clone. Plo is the first to move, quickly shooting forward to his commander and checking him over before doing the same to the others.

   Anakin just stares long and hard at Rex, who shuffles around in his spot under his general’s look. Next to Rex, Cody meets his own general’s eyes, waiting patiently for the other to speak first. Behind them, Gree had simply stopped looking back and forth between Jedi and sleeping form, instead settling his eyes on the large wolf laying by their side. Yoda watches Gree in what seems like slight fascination, rubbing his chin in thought.

   “Find the gem, how did you?” The short being finally asks, snapping the clones out of their shock. “Possible, it should not have been. Activate it, you should not have been able to.”

   “We were trying to find you.” Comes the quick response, Rex quickly stepping out of reach of the being’s cane. “Gree suggested we go one way. Sometime later, the gem was just… there.”

   He shrugs at the look that Gree shoots at him, making a face that practically says _‘what, it’s true.’_ Luminara’s eyebrows rise at the response, sharing a look with Yoda. _What is it about Gree suggesting something?_ Obi Wan thinks, frowning at the pair.

   “What even is this place?” Cody quickly asks to distract both himself and them, stepping closer to the Jedi and away from the shallow depression. “What are those things?”

   Obi Wan is the first to respond, crossing his arms. “We are in Abathas. It spans across entire galaxies, by what I gather. We’re currently standing in the Ebon Domain, which makes up the entire solar system that Coruscant is in.”

   “And first of all,” Anakin snarks as soon as the older finishes speaking, eyes darkening, “it’s rude to call them _things._ Second of all, they are Zenee. They are Jedi. They are _us,_ to put it in the simplest way possible.”

   “What exactly is a… Zenee?” Gree asks, choosing to stop his continued glaring at Cody. “How are they Jedi?”

   Luminara simply motions to the depression, stepping into it as the others follow her, the clones going hesitantly. She runs a hand through the wolf’s fur, lightly tracing something down its nose before sitting down.

   “We are not exactly the species that we were born into, truth be told.” The near-human states, turning to watch the clones’ reactions. “A bit after we are born, we turn into our Zenee for the first time. Not all parents react kindly to that.”

   “Our Zenee differs from being to being.” Plo picks up where she left off, humming in thought. “Beings of the same species are more likely to look alike than those of different ones, and siblings would look near on identical.”

   “A longer lifespan, we tend to have.” Yoda’s ears lie flat at the statement, his gaze staring unblinkingly at the wolf. “If kill us, being a Jedi does not, than a century or more of life will.”

   “The height, size, and lifespan of a Zenee also depends on one’s sensitivity to the Force.” Anakin continues, plopping down onto the ground. “Each one also depends on the species of the Force-sensitive. The higher the sensitivity for a being, the larger their Zenee and the longer their lifespan. Of course, since we know nothing about Yoda and his species, we don’t really know what the average is for him. He could be really short for all we know.”

   Yoda scowls at him, causing Anakin to smirk. Behind them, Obi-Wan flicks a finger in their direction, making Anakin’s head shot forward like it was swatted. Several snicker at the loud ‘hey,’ the man scowling at the group around him.

   “What do your Zenee look like?” Gree asks, hesitantly letting Luminara pull him down to sit next to the wolf's head. “Who’s the giant wolf?”

   Anakin simply grins in answer, shooting up. He runs out of the depression and jumps, skin shifting before the air around him warps, hiding him from view.

   Landing on the ground is a much larger form, the ground shaking from the weight. Hitting over eight meters tall, the spin of a massiff makes their way down the spine and tail of what looks like a krayt dragon, stopping when it gets to the top of a womp rat’s head. Long fur that reminds the clones of a bontha covers the Zenee’s body, blonde in color and darker and thicker on his stomach.

   Several other Zenee prance over, managing to convince the now larger Anakin to chase them. The ground shakes as they race away, the older Jedi smiling as they watch them. Rex watches on, mouth wide open in shock. Obi Wan smiles at the look on the captain’s face, lazily walking out of the depression.

   His shift is much slower than his old padawan’s, the air warping to reveal a Zenee several feet shorter than Anakin. At five meters tall, Obi Wan’s Zenee has the auburn feathered body of a lion. His head is that of a fox’s, ears flicking around as large wings with ruffled feathers fold to his back. Stretching out in a nearby depression, the large being yawns before he rolls onto his back and settles unblinking eyes on the group.

   The huff of amusement sounds loudly around the group, and the Jedi immediately tense at it. In front of them, Obi Wan flips back onto his stomach as his head lifts up in surprise and joy, a whine filling the air. Looking up, Luminara is the first to jump up and wrap his arms around the being that hovers above them.

   The wolf-like Zenee had woken up as they talked, green-gold eyes staring down at the group. Four front paws had carefully placed themselves around the group, the front pair curling up close to the Zenee’s chest and where Luminara’s arms had wrapped themselves around.

   Staring up at the Zenee, a feeling of completion fills Gree up, the feeling of lost he had for years disappearing. Despite the urge to not to, he relaxes when the being looks down at him, reaching a hand out. Yoda is the first to lightly rest his hand on the large wolf’s nose, a look of pain barely covered by one of relief.

   “Welcome you back, I do, Yaddle.” The short being states, lightly pressing his head against the large forehead. “Much to tell you, we do have.”


	3. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~bold and italics is an unknown language  
> ~hashtags and italics is Zenee mind speak

#### Previously

* * *

   The group of clones have been found by their Jedi. Their Jedi explain that the clones have somehow managed to enter the dimension called the Ebon Domain, and that the being’s they see are Zenee: the much larger, animal forms of Jedi. Anakin and Obi Wan reveal their own Zenee, and another had woken up from a six years long sleep.

#### Now

* * *

   Gree watches the two Jedi, listening to the smallest murmur softly to the large Zenee next to them. By what he can hear, the small being isn’t speaking in Basic, instead using a language that he doesn’t recognize. At least, not until he gets the time to hit the Temple’s Archives.

   The Zenee, who’s name all of the clones feel like they should know from somewhere, watches Yoda intently. Now out of her previous slouching position, Yaddle now looks much larger than before, ears swiveling around.

   The other three Jedi had taken their larger form. Luminara had chosen to curl up next to the larger Zenee and where Gree can’t clearly see her, the clone only seeing tufts of black fur over the larger mound. Mace had ultimately chosen to go after Anakin, his scaled form disappearing into the distance. Plo had curled up a ways from Obi Wan, carefully picking Wolffe up and taking him with him before the large and leathery Zenee had quickly curled around him.

   Gree had watched the last pair in amusement before turning back to his two generals, confused as to who this Yaddle being is and why the pair seem to be close friends with her. Stepping closer, he frowns in thought as he stares at the trio. _Where have I heard that name before? Why exactly is it so important?_

   Muttering under his breath, Gree looks around at the other Zenee. He can easily tell which ones belong to the same species, Anakin being one of the only two standing out. All of their Zenee forms seem to follow a pattern of looking like animals from their home planet, and Gree’s pretty sure that Anakin is the only one that’s from Tatooine.

   The other to stand out is Yaddle, who’s Zenee looks near identical to a long legged wolf. Other than the antlers, wings, and extra two legs, Gree would’ve easily mistaken the Zenee as a giant wolf. All of the others are a mix noticeable animal species from their home world, while this Zenee has a more subtle mix. Eyeing the being, he considers her name again.

   It reminds him of Yoda’s, in a way. Strange, for one, and it sounds like it doesn’t _really_ have need of a last name. Both start with the same letter, even if that fact doesn’t really help.

_Wasn’t there a Jedi with that name?_

   The unexpected thought is soon at the focus of his attention, eyes widening in surprise.  If he’s remember that class correctly, that Jedi was the same species as Yoda, but had died some time before the start of the war. _If the Zenee is her, than why did the Jedi say she died? Was it an effort to protect her from her these Sith as she healed?_

$~_~$

   Yoda huffs, staring up at the younger being. **_“You are not listening, hatchling. Why?”_ **

_#There is something strange about that… clone, Yoda.#_ The large Zenee growls to his question, eyes zeroed in on Gree as he moves closer and closer to them. _#Something about him echoes in the Force. Do you not sense it?#_

   Yoda shakes his head, turning to watch Gree as well. He doesn’t sense any of this echo from the commander. From one of the clones under his command, but not from Gree. It was never really noticeable to begin with, and no one else mentioned it, so he ignored it.

 **_“No, not from him. If others have been experiencing this, they haven’t mentioned it to other Jedi.”_ ** The silence after his words surround them, both Jedi watching the clone stop in front of them. Yoda senses Luminara sit up, arching her head to look over the other Zenee and down at her commander.

   Gree’s eyes jump between the three Jedi, head moving to look between them properly. He doesn’t say anything, choosing to go over the words on his mind before opening his mouth. After several minutes pass, he speaks up.

   “On Kamino, we learned about the Jedi we potentially could’ve been assigned to. A Yaddle of unknown species was one of the two I would’ve been assigned to, but it was said that she died before the war had started. Why did the Jedi lie about you still being alive… General?”

 


End file.
